The EVE atmosphere, which is created through stimulating and encouraging dialogs, was working its magic today at the Langham Shanghai Xintiandi Hotel.

Straight after a workshop session, participants gathered for the plenary session with Rachael Robertson, the second woman to have led the ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research) expedition to Davis base. This “extreme leadership” experience taught her many things, some unsettling, about the art of being a manager, to instill a collective culture while making space for individual contributions, maintaining an attitude of resilience, helping other people to grow and allowing them to transform her as well. It was a masterclass in co-constructive leadership!

Then, participants discovered the fascinating experience and striking personality of Rosaline Chow Koo, founder and CEO of CXA, an innovative insurance company that promotes a global approach to health and well-being at work, seen as factors in their own right in terms of performance and progress, while offering individual solutions to employees, depending on their needs and their priorities. She was incredibly inspiring through her determination, her daring, her unwavering faith in human values and her sense of solutions to bring those values concrete implementation.

To wrap up the day, before returning to workshops and then enjoying a networking dinner and a visit to Shanghai by night, participants attended the invigorating presentation given by Dr. Jane Horan, an international expert on diversity and inclusion issues, who strives towards a return to “politics” in businesses. There is neither hardline militant approach nor tactical maneuvering in Jane Horan’s “politics”, but an authentic leadership ethic combined with an acute sense of what is happening around us. 

EVE webmagazine team.

Translation : Ruth Simpson.